What Ceiling Tiles Are Suitable For Use In Schools?

With such a large variety of ceiling tiles available, are all ceiling tiles suitable for use within schools, or are there certain tiles we should be using?

Acoustic Performance

When looking for a ceiling tile for a classroom or learning environment, acoustic performance is a key indicator of how suitable a tile may or may not be.

Teachers rely on students concentrating throughout lessons and lectures, but many things can shift a students focus, such as sound reverberation, also known as echo. Sound reverberation is measured using reverberation time, which is the time it takes for the sound pressure level to drop by 60dB after the sound has been turned off. A good rating in a classroom, should have a short reverberation time of 0.5 seconds.  Ensuring that your room performs acoustically well is important, as you need to make sure that the room is comfortable to work and learn in, but a constant echo would hinder this.

Building Bulletin 93 was introduced in 1975 to outline the acoustic performance standards that must be met for new build schools, conversions, and renovations. The bulletin noted that ‘Each room or other space in a school building shall be designed and constructed in such a way that it has the acoustic conditions and the insulation against disturbance by noise appropriate to its intended use’. It had been noticed that a suspended ceiling that lacked acoustic performance, would ultimately hinder focus.

As a result of these requirements, many brands such as Ecophon and Rockfon, focused specifically on acoustic performance with some of the ceiling tiles in their range. This meant that schools had a much clearer choice of tiles, when replacing ceiling tiles, or building a completely new system.

If you need more technical advice about ceiling tiles and their acoustic performance, give out technical team a call on 01253 864902.

Ceiling Tile Fire Performance

Fire performance is of course also very important and government building standards are very clear on the minimum fire performance that building materials must provide. The government outlines that suspended ceilings must not encourage the spread of fire, and they must remain structurally sound for a set period of time, to allow people to get to safety. Some of the key points are outline on Ecophon‘s Fire Safety Requirements post, which makes for a good rea. For ease, the two main points are: -

·         Suspended ceilings must only make a negligible contribution to the fire development and production of smoke.

·         Suspended ceilings must not break and collapse during the early stages of the fire, when evacuation and rescue operations can still be carried out.

One of the test methods for fire performance is the reaction to fire test. This test is conducted to imitate the different stages of a fire. The test is conducted to test the reaction of fire for the below points: -

·         Surface spread of flame

·         Ignitability

·         Smoke production

·         Heat release

·         Flaming droplet and/or particle production

Ceiling Tile Light Reflectance

Coming back to focus within a learning environment, we also recognise that a room must be well lit, to aid students and teachers with reading and writing. Due to this, a ceiling tiles light reflectance should also be good, to maintain an even and constant spread of light around the classroom.

For example, if you were to put black ceiling tiles in your grid system, this would reduce light reflection and darken the room. Whereas a tile with good light reflection and a clean white surface would encourage a bright and well-lit room.

Good Ceiling Tile Options

To find a suitable ceiling tile for schools and classrooms, we must evaluate a tiles performance against all the above points. The ceiling tile should have great sound absorption qualities, high light reflectance and conform to building regulation standards.

Most ceiling tile manufacturers have made certain tiles specifically for schools such as the below: -

·         Zentia Arena Ceiling Tiles

·         Zentia Bene Ceiling Tiles

·         Rockfon Boxer Ceiling Tiles

·         Ecophon Gedina Ceiling Tiles

Ceiling tiles for schools must be strong and durable, but also easy to source and replace if needed. Educational facilities do receive a lot of wear and tare over time, so it is always worth carrying a couple of boxes as back up. From one box of tiles to 100 boxes, we supply nationwide with superfast delivery times, so don’t hesitate to call us today on 01253 864902.

Different Tiles for Different Places

We all know that schools, universities, and colleges, aren’t just made up of classrooms. There are many different rooms within an educational facility, including corridors, sports halls, staff rooms, dinner halls and many more. The requirement for each of these areas may differ due to the level of noise, height of the ceiling and size of the room. So, it is important to check before purchasing your ceiling tiles from Judge Interiors, so we can help you get it right first time, every time.

How To Stop Ceiling Tiles Being Broken

The thickness of a ceiling tile tends to range between 13-15mm as standard, with 15mm ceiling tiles being the most common option. They are mostly made from mineral fibre, which isn’t very strong against the kick of a football or the impact of a school bag. So how do we go about preventing damaged ceiling tiles? There are a few ways in which we can reduce ceiling tile damage: -

1.       Replace the ceiling tiles with much thicker and denser ceiling tiles such as the Rockfon Boxer

2.       Use Hold Down Clips to keep the tiles in place and stop them lifting/falling.

3.       Use Suspended Ceiling Pattresses to sit above the tile, giving it more strength and resistance to impact.

Ultimately, ceiling tiles are not designed to withstand frequent contact, they are designed to be left untouched, unless they are being cleaned or replaced.

To conclude, there are many suitable tiles for use within schools, but there are also specific types of tiles that are designed for use within classrooms and sports halls. It is important to specify or choose the correct tile, to ensure that the best fire, light and acoustic results are being achieved when building a suspended ceiling system within a school.

For more information or technical advice, call our expert team today on 01253 864902.